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Topic: Master of Orion tangent thread (Read 12111 times)
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Arne
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I drew a Hybrid cyberman a while ago, a mix of old and new.
I'm getting more of a Final Fantasy mage vibe from the Darloks. I think He-Man had a little mage like that too. Then there's the zelda Wizrobes of course. And the Magicians from Tower of Druaga.
Yeah I'm not familiar with the MoO2 races as I am with the ones from the first game now. I've just seen a bunch of pictures from MoO2 and it doesn't give the same experience as seeing them acting ingame. I just threw in the elerian cuz they're babes, and all MoO1 has in that department is furries, yuck!
Androids are a race? I've never seen any Antarian or Android images. I've been using this MoO races page for reference.
I think you can see the weapons in the research view in MoO1. There's a categorical blueprint at least. There's one for hand lasers and some kind of rifle. I'd try to rip/dump the bitmaps from the lbx archive if I had time. Someone wrote a gfx extractor for MoO2. I think the gfx is in lbx archive and in a custom RLE format.
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« Last Edit: October 24, 2008, 11:29:15 pm by Arne »
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Arne
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Some random Silicoid sketches. The news robot is probably a robot, because they can be neutral, although, it doesn't seem too happy about the prospect of living under the rule of a ruthless tyrant.
Menu mockups. MoO1 has the classic Starbase + Planet layout. I think I've seen in in a couple of other games too. I've got a bad tangent on the big ship, beam and planet curve, need to tilt stuff...
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« Last Edit: October 25, 2008, 10:05:09 pm by Arne »
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Elerium
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First off, I love the drawings! The selection screen with the human emperor highlighted looks really accurate to the original MoO and the nice little pictures showing off the races offers more, as if you've captured the feel the original had. The news robot is also very accurate to the original, which is good 
I'm getting more of a Final Fantasy mage vibe from the Darloks. I think He-Man had a little mage like that too. Then there's the zelda Wizrobes of course. And the Magicians from Tower of Druaga.
Yeah they usually fit the Darloks, to me when I see them I think of Stargate's Anubis, a cold and manipulative race, maybe their cloaky look is made to inspire fear in other races to repulse them (as they're hated by everyone save for the Humans? Although it could be interesting to portray a Human/Darlok conversation as they'd talk casually without any problems with each other).
Yeah I'm not familiar with the MoO2 races as I am with the ones from the first game now. I've just seen a bunch of pictures from MoO2 and it doesn't give the same experience as seeing them acting ingame. I just threw in the elerian cuz they're babes, and all MoO1 has in that department is furries, yuck! Androids are a race? I've never seen any Antarian or Android images. I've been using this MoO races page for reference.
I don't know about the Androids either, maybe he meant the news robot..? apart from that there wasn't any Androids in the game as far as I can remember (unless he means the minor MoO2 planetary governors?). There was an AI Orion Guardian in both games, which is a supership armed to the teeth which guards the Orion system, attacking anyone who enters the system. Destroying the Guardian yields the Death Ray and Black Hole Generator technologies, and a few extra goodies in MoO2 (I can't remember the exact techs). Orion also confers a major research bonus for whoever controls it as it's the "city of the ancients" and loaded with artifacts, and when other races vote for you at the galactic senate they'll tend to side with the one who controls Orion. Also in MoO2, if you take Orion, the last Orion who was in stasis on the planet and his supership will side with you.
Antarans on the otherhand were in MoO2 as an evil "precursor race" that every now and then they'd invade your worlds (they gloat in your face before they do though). They'd enter the galaxy and waste a colony to nothingness with their weapons ranging from end-game Xenotromium Armour, Particle Beams and some other gadgets they use on their ships just to prove a point that your an inferior race, and are xenocidal for unknown reasons. The early raiding parties range from small frigates which take a lot of firepower to beat them, then later on they get their big battleships into play which are sort of unstoppable unless you've got late game tech and enough ships. If you lose an Antaran space battle, they'll annihilate everything on the planet they invade, then disappear without a trace. This excerpt from the manual I found here explains the history behind the Antarans and the Orions:
http://thelastorion.blogspot.com/2006/09/orions-and-antarans.html
Orions were sort of like a human ancient precursor race who had a huge war with the Antarans, both sides occupying the galaxy. The war ended with the Antarans being pushed to an alternate dimentional pocket universe and keeping them there supposedly for eternity, but the Orions disappeared mysteriously without a trace leaving the Guardian behind to guard their ancient city. The lesser races evolve, rise, and then when MoO2 comes the Antarans finally break free to pose a big threat to the galaxy.
Another way to win the game in MoO2 is to invade the Antaran pocket universe via a Dimensional Portal and lay waste to their homeworld using your fleet. If you win the space battle (expect to be facing tons of endgame battleships, frigates, cruisers and a star fortress with a special leader onboard) you glass the Antarans and thus you prove that you're the most powerful force in the galaxy, and you've ended the galaxy-wide Antaran threat, so the other races secede to you. If a race has the Extra-Dimentional trait, I think they can invade the Antarans without the need of a Portal.
MoO3 retcons the last game saying you only destroyed "an outpost" what you thought was their homeworld, and then the Antarans came back and conquered the galaxy after seeing what a threat the lesser races became. Then they ruled for a long time, messed around with the old races and made a bunch of new races before a faction of Antarans got fed up with the main species saying they were the "new Orions" and had a civil war with them. But.. MoO3 wasn't taken too well, so this continuity could be ignored.
The Antarans look like this, on the cover of the box art, and there's some more in MoO2 of full body shots and in-game ships but alas I don't have the game on me.
This guy is Xyphys the Antaran Warrior, who pilots the Antaran Star Fortress. He has a bunch of global benefits he confers to his fleet.
And the only portrait of an Orion in a MoO game is Loknar, the Last Orion:
He's onboard the supership gained from Orion when you defeat the Guardian, and he gives a load of fleet benefits.
His and Xyphys' stats and the portraits/stats of many other minor race governors/leaders in MoO2 can be found here: http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html
I think you can see the weapons in the research view in MoO1. There's a categorical blueprint at least. There's one for hand lasers and some kind of rifle. I'd try to rip/dump the bitmaps from the lbx archive if I had time. Someone wrote a gfx extractor for MoO2. I think the gfx is in lbx archive and in a custom RLE format.
The only difficulty I reckon is the MoO1 images, there's literally tons of technology drawings yet I doubt it's ever been ripped via a program because it's an old game.. unless you want us to print screen some research screens when some of us play MoO1 again?
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« Last Edit: October 26, 2008, 01:25:29 am by Elerium »
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Son_of_Antares
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Arioch, I summon thee...
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Ahhh...it's nice to see when Antarans are conquering threads  Nice post there Elerium.
When I said androids, I was referring to 3 techs (in MoO2) in computers branch/cybernetics - the Android Farmers, Workers and Scientists. When you research it you can artificially build-up population on your colonies rather than waiting for it to grow "naturally". The droids also added bonuses to the jobs they were assigned to but you couldn't shift them to any other job (farmers - farming only etc.) or transport them to any other colony. There are no pics of them in the game (except for the news/event bot); but I was thinking - if you are already set on making an MoO-like game will there be droids in them?and seeing how much diversity are you preparing in the ships/techs/races department, I just wondered are they going to be all the same, or race specific?because, personally, I always disliked the idea that alien races that were completely different from humans (like for example Silicoids or Darloks) utilized the same ol' two-legs two-arms two-eyes bots. I always imagined that robots made by extraterrestrials would be at least as much extraterrestrial as their creators.This is just sf/MoO geek speaking from me, but seeing you confused I had to explain myself. Sorr 
And really - are you set on making a game with MoO theme, or this is just random posting? *blink-blink*
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Arne
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I tend to revision old licences. Atari owns this one (?), so it's a no-go... as are most of my stuff. At any rate I have severe focus problems and won't be able to finish anything.
Re: News robots. Perhaps these are a faction / race of information gatherers (who sell their broadcasts at a price). They could have fast cloaked scout ships, explaining how they are omniscient-ish. The quote "Another millennium under the rule of a ruthless tyrant" suggests that they are old, and thus possibly quite advanced.
As for androids, I think they could be redundant. Factories are already robotic, and you can level up reproduction with cloning and other mechanics already.
Re: Race specific tech, Yeah, I had that included on my tech level image. I want terrain to navigate and adapt to though. I think there are plenty of opportunities to offer varied terrain by for example use planets to deliver ancient artifacts / inspiration. That would feel more tangible.
Re: Antarans. I'm guessing time must go slow in their prison dimension, given how fast the player races level up. It could be a StarGate Replicator confinement situation. Orionites... I can't figure out if that's a helmet/mask they wear or if it's a 'funny forehead' human. Perhaps they were regenerated in a form familiar to the contemporary species.
Re: MoO graphic dumpage, it's unfortunate that you can't just scroll through the tech on the tech screen... or maybe you can? At any rate, the tech images aren't that useful because a lot of techs share the same image. I've ripped the blue and red ships so far, but I'm mostly just using their general architecture as a guide.
Menu mockups updated - A bot more true with orange buttons and a guardian, although I picked my own race because I happened to draw it, randomly. It's 'Greys' (or Andorian) + female warrior race + Star Trek paraphrase ships. I might use them in case I decide to file off the serial number to get rid of various copyright/trademark restrictions.
I'll clean up my intro storyboard now. (edit, ended up spending time redrawing the face. I can spend ages on face fail.)
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« Last Edit: October 27, 2008, 11:24:11 pm by Arne »
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Arne
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Here's my Project page. I don't have time to work more on it atm. I decided to approach the genre in my own way and come up with my own aliens, weapon system, etc.
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Son_of_Antares
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Well this looks like a totally different game, but still seems to be pretty much awesome. Why even call the game MoO or place it in the same setting if you added so much fresh mightyfine shinystuff?  More than enough to create something totally new? Kinda spoils the feel a bit but keep rockin', me likes it and would very much want to playz it 
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« Last Edit: December 21, 2008, 09:50:23 pm by Son_of_Antares »
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Draxas
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That's Arne's MO for you. He picks an old game, plans a way to enhance and completely overhaul it, draws some (or sometimes lots) of gorgeous art detailing his ideas, and then moves onto the next. 
While it's always a treat to read about his frequently great ideas, and admire his awesome artwork, expecting an actual product to come of it is unwise.
Personally, I find it to be a better system than if he started coding, released one promising tech demo, and then fell off the face of the planet like so many other similar projects.
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Arne
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Most of the time I try to stay faithful to the source materials with my various projects. When people look at the designs they should be able to recognize the most or all of the characters easily. I like basing my designs on existing licenses because of nostalgia and because of the problem solving fun that comes with... uh, extrapolations derived from existing data points. It's a challenge to look at all the designs in say, Rygar, then figure out what I can build with those pieces, while also expressing myself within the confines of a style that I like.
I occasionally get mails from coders who are interested working with me, and naturally I have to decline because we'd be C&D'ed anyways, not owning the appropriate license. So, with this MoO project I decided halfway through to just rant and pop a few of my own ideas, and then eventually change all of the 'fluff', including the aliens. This way I won't have to say no to the next coder who mails me. (So, yeah, I wouldn't call it MoO.)
Of course, I'd have to do all the art assets still, and that's probably at least 6 months of work. In theory I could do most of it without having an engine at all. It's mostly just stills, like the original MoO. I think a lot can be done to animate the universe just by placing pieces of art wisely (avoiding 'Excel in space'). One day I want to try to finish most art assets for a project in advance. I think there's no shortage of coders who are willing to invest time into a project which has most of the assets done.
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« Last Edit: December 18, 2008, 02:04:24 am by Arne »
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